Governor of the Southern Confederation
The Governor of the Southern Confederation (originally Governor-General) is the chief executive of the Southern Confederation. When the Britannic Design was drafted in 1781, the Governor-General (as he was then known) was selected by Parliament. This continued to be the case until 1808, when a revision of the Design allowed for the Governor to be chosen by the Royal Governors of the confederation's individual provinces. By the 1820s the Governor was chosen by the members of the Southern Confederation Council. Following the adoption of the Second Britannic Design in 1842, the Governor of the S.C. was popularly elected. The first Governor-General of the S.C. was John Connolly, who was sworn in at the Southern capital of Norfolk, Virginia on 2 July 1782. Unlike the Governors-General of the Northern Confederation, John Dickinson and George Clinton, Connolly was little more than a figurehead, since most political power in the S.C. was exercised at the provincial level. This was a reflection of the confederation's economy, which was dominated by slave-based plantations growing cash crops such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton. The plantation owners dominated the provincial legislatures, and they preferred to maintain as much power in their own hands as possible. During Connolly's tenure as Governor-General, Governor Theodorick Bland of Virginia dominated meetings of the S.C. Council, and the other Royal Governors either followed his lead or acted on their own. When settlers in the province of Georgia suffered raids from Seminole Indians based in Spanish Florida in the early 1790s, the Georgian government acted on its own to send provincial militia in counter-raids against them. When the Trans-Oceanic War broke out between Great Britain and Spain in 1795, Georgia sent Colonel Richard Tomkinson into Florida at the head of a force of Georgia militia. Tomkinson's men crushed the Spanish garrison in the Floridian capital of St. Augustine, and massacred the Seminoles. Within a year, Florida was under Georgian control, and the Georgian government annexed Florida without consulting either Connolly, Viceroy Sir John Dickinson or the British Parliament. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 resulted in a surge in cotton production in the S.C., and cotton quickly became the confederation's most profitable crop. The increase in cotton production was accompanied by an increase in the number of Negro slaves in the S.C., and in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. There was also a constant threat of slave uprisings, with over 600 taking place between 1810 and 1836. Following the Insurrection of 1829, there was a growing movement in the S.C. to end slavery, led by the Southern Union and supported by Conservative Party leader Willie Lloyd, the Governor of South Carolina. Liberal Party leader John Calhoun, the Governor of Georgia, responded with the Defense of the Realm speech, in which he defended slavery and warned that the end of slavery would mean the destruction of Southern civilization. Calhoun was able to lead the Liberals to victory in the 1833 elections, becoming Governor-General, and under him slavery continued. The institution of slavery was dealt a fatal blow by the Panic of 1836, which caused a slump in the prices of cotton and slaves. By 1838, the price of slaves had fallen below the cost of transporting them from Africa, and the slave trade collapsed. Plantations across the S.C. gave up cotton cultivation and lapsed into a subsistence economy. Under the Lloyd Bill of 1840, Governor Lloyd offered to compensate slaveowners who freed their slaves, and over the objections of Calhoun and other pro-slavery politicians, the S.C. Council accepted. By the end of 1841, slavery had ended in the S.C. Sobel does not say whether the Conservative victory over slavery was reflected in political triumph in the 1839 elections; if so, then Lloyd would have succeeded Calhoun as Governor-General then. The most notable Southern governor after Lloyd was Chester Phipps, who was chosen by the Liberals as their candidate for Governor-General in the 1918 Grand Council elections. Phipps was opposed by Councilman Calvin Wagner of Indiana, the People's Coalition candidate, and the hand-picked successor of incumbent Governor-General Albert Merriman. The Coalition had been in power since 1888, and Phipps warned North American voters that a vote for them would mean "more of the same," presumably hoping that the North American electorate had grown tired of the Coalition's policies of government-subsidized businesses and global isolationism. Wagner responded by saying, "If by 'more of the same,' Governor Phipps means still greater prosperity and continued peace and tranquillity, then I plead guilty to that desire." Wagner had no trouble leading the Coalition to victory over the Liberals in 1918. Despite his defeat, Phipps remained a leading figure in the Liberal Party for the next five years, which coincided with the rise of the League for Brotherhood under former Southern Vandalian Governor Howard Washburne. By 1922, there existed a large minority within the Liberal Party who wished to nominate Washburne as party leader in the upcoming Grand Council elections. Phipps was opposed, saying on 4 August 1922, "Mr. Washburne is a saint. But saints are notoriously poor politicians." Phipps was able to prevent Washburne from gaining the nomination, which went to Councilman Henderson Dewey of Indiana. Unlike Phipps five years before, Dewey was able to defeat Wagner in the 1923 Grand Council elections. Category:Government of the Southern Confederation Category:Governors of the Southern Confederation